What is my favorite quote from the “Getting Started” section?

I hate to sound redundant, however, my favorite quote was on page 19,

 “We must meet children where they are, we must understand them well to teach them, and we must offer them the right amounts of supports and challenges to grow.” 

This spoke to me in a number of ways. First and foremost, it emphasizes building relationships with your students. When you build those relationships, you understand them better as a person and as a learner. It allows you to know what support they need and also how to challenge them in ways that will aid them in their growth.

How do I fit in time for conferencing and/or goal-setting?

We all know that conferencing and goal-setting can be tricky at times. One way that I conference with students is doing their read- to-self time and also in the last five minutes of small group time. I try to set up a schedule for conferences so that I am meeting with each group once a week in order to discuss reading strategies for the students to work on. This year my school implemented CAFE/CRAFT. CAFE stands for Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency and Expanding Vocabulary. Craft is an extension of Cafe. CRAFT stands for Comprehension, Responding to text, Accuracy, Fluency and Text Features. These two programs are effective ways to set goals for students. I began by writing on a sticky note the student’s reading goal for the week and they would keep it in their daily stations folder. The student would rewrite their goal on his/ her own sticky note and place it under the correct strand on the board. I love that Serrvallo also includes a strategies sheet for the students to place in their journals to remind them how to reach their goal.  (pg. 8)

Lookie here at this free download I found on TPT to place in reading journals! Just click on the link below to download via  TPT! 😊

Student Goal Handout! 

Some of my favorite quotes from this section: 

• “In order to manage the various goals in your classroom, you may consider creating a visual reminder for each individual reader so they can remind themselves what they are working on.” (pg.8)

• “To me, strategies are deliberate, effortful, intentional and purposeful actions a reader takes to accomplish a specific task or skill. ” (pg. 8)

This introductory section of the book was very informative. It allowed me to see how the book is set up and how to navigate through the different “recipes” throughout the book. I enjoyed reading this section and the background knowledge that it gave me in order to continue to read on to Goals 1 & 2. Happy Reading!